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14 November 2012

So far, we've determine that Feiga Grinfeld, who arrived in New York on the Aquitania accompanied by my great grandfather Avrum Garber, and Fannie Greenfield of Cincinnati were one and the same. We have not determined how she is related to my family. You may review my research and findings at the following links:

Obituary

At this point it seemed that a little family time should be prescribed. I found the prescription in Fannie Greenfield's obituary in the Cincinnati Post.

Services will be held at 1 pm Wednesday at the Weil Funeral Home, 3901 Reading Road, for Mrs. Fannie Greenfield, mother of Robert Greenfield, proprietor of the Main Army Store in Norwood. Burial will be at Adath Israel Cemetery at Lick Run, Price Hill.

Mrs. Greenfield died Monday at her home, 3990 Parker Place. In addition to Robert Greenfield, she is survived by two other children, Mrs. Harry Young of Cincinnati and Mrs. Joseph Saltzman of Louisville, a brother, Morris Liderman of Detroit, and six grandchildren.[1]

There were two great new pieces of information in this obituary: Mrs. Joseph Saltzman and Morris Liderman (more on him in a future post). Prior to acquiring Fannie's naturalization records in early November, this was the first evidence I'd located regarding Leja Grinfeld. Apparently she'd married Joseph Saltzman and moved to Louisville.

Family Contacts

Via Inter-Library Loan, I located Adath Louisville, which chronicles the history of the Jewish community in Louisville. Joseph Saltzman was a Rabbi and a Hebrew teacher who arrived in Louisville with his wife Leah in 1921. They were newly arrived from the Old Country and had learned of a teaching job at the Louisville Hebrew School from relatives in Cincinnati. Rebbitzen Leah Saltzman was a Hebrew teacher, as well, and started teaching at the school in the 1930s. According the Adath Louisville,

She was one of the few women ever privileged to attend a Russian gymnasium (the equivalent of junior college) and carved out a niche as a beloved teacher on her own.[2]

Rabbi Saltzman and Leah taught at the school into the 1960s.

Leah Grinfeld Saltzman, 1899-1965

I located Leah with her family, husband Joseph and two daughters, in Louisville in 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census records.[3] In addition, via an online index provided by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Library, I located an obituary for Leah published in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Within a day, the librarian emailed Leah's obituary. [4]

Leah's obituary gave me her daughters' married names and cities of residence at the time of Leah's death (I will not share the full information here since I prefer to protect Leah's daughters' privacy). I tried to contact her younger daughter via her husband who had an online presence. No response. Frustration.

While I waited for a response that was not to come, I checked the JewishGen Family Finder for the shtetl of Baranovka.[5] The names I'd been tracing were represented by one researcher who was not only seeking the names Greenfield and Saltzman, but also bore one of the descendant surnames I'd been tracking. N.M. turned out to be the wife of Leah's grandson.

I first contacted N.M. just about this time last year - right before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving she told me that Leah's younger daughter, whom I'd tried to contact, was not interested in talking with me. I understand. I came to them out of the blue. But I have to admit this was my first outright rejection in many tries.

N.M., however, was a fellow researcher and helpful. She told me Fannie and Leah's story and, more recently shared an original document from Baranovka. She has not yet located a photo of Fannie, but I'm ever hopeful.

11 November 2012

My father's time in the armed forces during World War II was an important part of his life - he was proud to have served. But Bernard "Sonny" Garber, did not talk much about his Army Air Corps experience. He'd enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 2 February 1942.[1] I recall him saying that he knew he was about to be drafted and wanted to choose his branch of service. He was 23 years old.For a kid from Brooklyn, training in Arizona was memorable. He was enthralled with the desert around Tucson and the open spaces. He had hoped to be a pilot but, like so many, washed out. He received his gunner's wings in Kingman, AZ in March of 1944.There are great challenges for those of us researching our ancestors who served during WWII in the Army Air Corps. A fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri destroyed 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files on 12 July 1973. In March of 2008, I requested my father's service records and received only three pages: his Final Payment Roll - essentially his mustering out papers. He was discharged from Fort Dix on 3 September 1945.Among the papers my brother and I found in my parents' home was a draft of an article that was sent by the Army on 14 April 1945 for publication in the Brooklyn Citizen. The photo, above, was published with the article.

AN EIGHTH AIR FORCE BOMBER STATION, England - - Shown beside his top turret guns on his B-17 Flying Fortress is Technical Sergeant Bernard Garber, 25 year old aerial engineer from Brooklyn, New York.

Sgt. Garber has recently been awarded the third Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal for "meritorious achievement" while participating in the Eighth Air Force attacks on vital industrial targets and enemy held installations in Germany. The official citation accompanying the award commented on the "courage, coolness and skill displayed by Sgt. Garber on all occasions," as reflecting "great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States." The presentation was made by his group commander, Colonel Wm. J. Wrigglesworth of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

As a member of the 447th Bomb. Group, a unit of the Third Air Division, the division which has been cited by the President for the now historic England-Africa shuttle mission bombing of Messerschmitt factories at Regensburg, Germany, Sgt. Garber is flying combat missions in what is considered to the the toughest theatre of aerial warfare.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. B. [sic, should be 'J.'] Garber of 2595 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, Sgt. Garber before entering the Army Air Forces in February, 1942, was employed by the McKinley & Edwards [sic, should be 'McKinley Edwards'] Co. of New York City. He received his gunner's wings in March, 1944, at Kingman, Arizona.

Colonel Wrigglesworth commanded the base at Rattlesden, England. With this and the above information I made an inquiry on a WWII Eighth Air Force online discussion forum and received some great information from Keith Hardie a frequent participant on the forum.

Wessling Crew: B.Garber is kneeling, 2nd from left

Bernard Garber was in the 447th Bomb Group, 709th Bomb Squadron, John V. Wessling Crew .The crew, as reported on the 8 January 1945 loading list (which may have been one of my father's last missions) [2]:

Pilot: 1st Lt. John V. Wessling

Co-Pilot: Lt. T.J. Foley

Navigator: 1st Lt. W.C. Rausch

Bombardier: 1st Lt. A.M. Smith

Top Turret Gunner: Tech. Sgt. B. Garber

Radio: Tech. Sgt. C.D. Koehler

Ball Turret Gunner: Staff Sgt. H.F. Olafson

Waist Gunner: Staff Sgt. M.S. Taylor

Tail Gunner: Staff Sgt. A.V. Stanley

Keith also provided a partial list of missions for the Wessling Crew.[2]-->

Date

Ship

Target

28 Sep 1944

Dixie Marie

Merseberg

2 Oct 1944

Scheherazade

Kassel/Henschel

3 Oct 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Giedbelstadt

5 Oct 1944

Shack Happy

Munster/Loddenhede

14 Oct 1944

Devil’s Mate II

Cologne

15 Oct 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Cologne

17 Oct 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Cologne

18 Oct 1944

Uninvited

Kassel/Mittefeld

19 Oct 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Mannheim

25 Oct 1944

American Beauty

Hamburg

26 Oct 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Hannover

30 Oct 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Merseberg

2 Nov 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Merseberg

26 Nov 1944

?

Hamm

27 Nov 1944

Lady Jane/Stinky

Bingen

30 Nov 1944

Wolf Wagon

Lutzkendorf (Merseberg area)

4 Dec 1944

The Big Ass Bird

Mainz

8 Jan 1945

The Black Brassiere

Frankfurt

My father was in the top turret of the plane - a very exposed position. One story my father related to us was that there had been an airman who was jealous of my father's position on the plane. Somehow it was arranged that this man would go on one mission and take the top turret. The man returned having taken some scrapnel in his bottom. My father was amused.

We attributed my father's luck to the fact that he had a very small bottom. This makes it all the more amusing that the plane his crew flew most often was The Big Ass Bird. It had been painted by Nicholas H. Fingelly of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

My father finished all of his missions - no mean feat in the Eighth Air Force, a group that lost many planes and airmen. He completed his missions before many of his comrades in arms and was fortunate to return to the States before the war ended. He considered that his early arrival home gave him a leg up on courting my mother.

After Halloween I find it hard to resist left-over candy. But, there's hardly anything sweeter than getting a new record in the mail, especially one that bolsters ones research. And kudos to the Great Lakes Region, National Archives in Chicago for taking the prize as the most responsive records repository with which I've ever dealt.

The 1930 U.S. Census indicated that Robert Greenfield had become a U.S. citizen and that Feiga and Ray Greenfield had filed their papers to do so.[1] By the 1940 U.S. Census both Feiga and Ray were recorded as citizens.[2]

So, it was with some optimism that I ordered microfilm roll 1,819,412 from the Family History Library.[3] The roll promised to hold the Greenfield naturalization petition records (if they existed) from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District, Ohio.

The Family History Library notified me on Monday, 29 October that the roll had arrived at my preferred Regional Family History Center in Mesa, AZ. The next afternoon in Mesa I loaded the roll on the microfilm reader and located the indexed records for Feiga, Ray and Robert Greenfield who were all naturalized in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio.

Fannie Greenfield indexed naturalization petition record

On Tuesday
evening, 30 October, I determined that the Great Lakes Region, National Archives would have the Hamilton County, Ohio records and I placed an online order for the naturalization records
for Fannie Greenfield and Ray Greenfield. On Wednesday morning I received
an email saying the records had been located and shipped. This Friday
afternoon, 2 November, they arrived in the mail. (I have wondered why the Chicago National Archives branch doesn't offer to scan and email the records - but, the U.S. Postal Service came through with flying colors - and I'm really not complaining.)

Fannie Greenfield, as shown in my most recent post, was indeed Feiga Grinfeld who'd arrived at New York Harbor with my great grandfather Avrum Garber on 10 November 1922 aboard the Aquitania.[4] Her Declaration of Intention, the first papers individuals filed in the naturalization process, indicated that prior to emigration she'd been living in Warsaw. She had been born in Baranovka and was a widow who had been married to Schachna Grinfeld.[6]

I found the Warsaw residence information interesting. When Avrum's youngest children, Feiga and Aron Garber, arrived in New York in the Spring of 1922, they had identified their cousin Feiga Grunfeld of Warsaw as their closest relative in Europe.[5] I'd thought that Volhynia Gubernia, also known as Wolin, could have been misidentified as Warsaw on the manifest since I'd never known any of my relatives to have lived in Warsaw. And on Feiga's manifest, both Feiga and Avrum stated they'd been most recently living in "Wollin." [4] But, both Feiga's Declaration of Intention and Petition identify Warsaw as her last residence prior to emigration.

Fannie's 1932 Petition for Citizenship confirms the information on her Declaration and other information about her family and origins. She was a widow with three grown children (Leah Grinfeld Salzman of Louisville, Kentucky and Robert and Ray of Cincinnati, Ohio).[7]

The document also provides some new information that, ultimately may provide some additional color to the story of my great grandfather's emigration. The British manifest for Feiga and Awrum's voyage indicated that the Aquitania of the Cunard line had sailed from Southampton, England on 4 November 1922. [8] Fannie's Petition indicates that she had initially sailed from Rotterdam, Holland. So, now, instead of assessing a travel route from Labun to Southampton, I must consider Labun (to perhaps Baranovka) to Warsaw to Rotterdam to Southampton. Perhaps Avrum lived for a few months in Warsaw after his youngest children left for the United States? More questions for another time.

Right now I'm savoring the sweet taste of a modicum of research success (as well as those darn Milky Ways). More questions will be answered when I contact Fannie's living relatives (and get over my chocolate cravings).